Quantum plasmonics with quantum dot-metal nanoparticle molecules: influence of the Fano effect on photon statistics

We study theoretically the quantum optical properties of hybrid molecules composed of an individual quantum dot and a metallic nanoparticle. We calculate the resonance fluorescence of this composite system. Its incoherent part, arising from nonlinear quantum processes, is enhanced by more than 2 orders of magnitude as compared to that of the dot alone. The coupling between the two systems gives rise to a Fano interference effect which strongly influences the quantum statistical properties of the scattered photons: a small frequency shift of the incident light field may cause changes in the intensity correlation function of the scattered field of orders of magnitude. The system opens a good perspective for applications in active metamaterials and ultracompact single-photon devices.     

A mean field analysis of the static dielectric behavior of linear lower alcohols

The static dielectric responses of methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol up to 1-hexanol are discussed in terms of a stiff-chain lattice model for the alcohol clusters. An analytical expression for the Kirkwood correlation factor gK is derived in terms of the canonical partition function associated to the configurational statistics of any of the dimers building up a chain. This allows for the estimate of the dipole moment mu0 of an alcohol molecule in the liquid phase from the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant. All alcohol species appear to be characterized by a dipole moment larger than in the vapor phase. The Kirkwood correlation factor is found to be an increasing function of the alkyl tail length.     

The stability of intramolecular DNA quadruplexes with extended loops forming inter- and intra-loop duplexes

We have examined the formation of intramolecular quadruplex DNA structures in which the loops have been extended so as to generate short DNA duplexes. Fluorescence melting and DNase I cleavage studies show that duplexes can be formed within each loop, but that duplexes between the loops are not stable.     

FAST METHOD OF TOTAL ACID GROUPS DETERMINATION IN FUNCTIONALIZED ACRYLIC DISPERSIONS

Acid functionalized acrylic dispersions are easily titrated in water phase by means of tetra-n-butylammonium hydroxide standardized aqueous solution. All acid groups react rapidly with the titer even in the case of crosslinked polymer latices. Results are in good agreement with the theoretical acid content and values obtained from back titration and organic solvent titration methods.     

Prediction of Polymer Properties from their Structure by Recursive Neural Networks

Summary: We propose a new approach for predicting polymer properties from structured molecular representations based on recursive neural networks. To this aim, a structured representation is designed for the modeling of polymer structures. This representation can also account for average macromolecule characteristics. Preliminarily, this model is applied to the calculation of the T_g of (meth)acrylic polymers with different stereoregularity.

Representation of poly(methyl methacrylate) as a chemical tree and unfolding of the encoding process through its structure.     

Prediction of Chemical-Physical Properties by Neural Networks for Structures

Here we present an overview of a new approach to cheminformatics based on recursive neural networks. This approach allows for combining the flexibility and advantages of neural networks with the representational power of structured domains. Current advances, which include applications to the prediction of the solvation free energy of small molecules in water and of the glass transition temperature of (meth)acrylic polymers are reported.